EC set its foot right in poll bound Punjab, introduces new measures to keep check

January 10, 2017 |
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Chandigarh (Punjab) [India], Jan. 10 (ANI): Assuring peaceful and safe elections scheduled to take place next month, Punjab chief electoral officer V. K. Singh on Tuesday highlighted the new facilities initiated by the Election Commission of India in the poll bound state.
While briefing the media here, Singh informed about the committee which would be keeping a check on the paid media and news items raising suspicion.
"District level and state level Media Monitoring and Media Certification Committee has been formed. Handling of the paid media and a check on all the suspicious news items will be kept. All the information related to it will be available online on a daily basis. This is happening for the first time," Singh said.
Apart from the traditional complaint system of the Election Commission, it has, this time, launched a new system namely 'Samadhaan' to address people's complaints faster and in a more organised manner.
"We have also formed a robust complaint regressive system. We have two online systems currently. One is the traditional complaint system of the Election Commission of India, Public Grievance Redressal System. The Election Commission, DO office and CO office are connected with it. And we have launched a new system this time, Samadhaan. Under it, EC, DO office, CO office, RO, PRO, district police and police nodal officer are connected with it. We don't have to write letters to each other. The common software lets us see each other's work. This leads to faster resolution of problems," he said.
'Samadhaan' has got a great response, as 915 complaints have already been received so far, out which 753 have been resolved.
"We have received 915 complaints so far out of which, 329 have been received this week. Out of the total, 753 have been resolved. 156 are under process, but it is within the time limit. 6 have crossed the time limit. When a complaint exceeds time limit, it gets a red flag. We then overview it and see what can be done about it," he said.
Apart from this, Singh also notified about round the clock working call centre which is there to address complaints, leading to their resolution at the earliest.
"We also have a 24-hour working call centre, in which we have received 156 complaints so far. Out of them, 152 have been resolved and four are pending," he told.
Singh also briefed about the guidelines issued in the Code of Conduct related to road show and video van.
The Election Commission will be visiting Chandigarh to review the process of elections.
It will be meeting representatives of all political parties on January 11. Review of DC, SSP, DIG, IG and Commissioner level officers will take place on January 12.
A meeting with senior officers of Punjab government including chief secretary, DGP, finance, home, excise officers will also be done."
Elections are to take place in five states namely Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand in the month.
There will be seven-phase polling for 403 assembly constituencies in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, two-phase polling in Manipur and one-phase polling each in the states of Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa respectively. (ANI)